Worms!? Maggots!? In poop!!!

[nuthatched]

@nuthatched @Eggcessive @dawg53 @BastyPutt what do you think would help? I've suggested deworming feeds and natural deworming liquids. Is Verm X liquid helpful or would you reccomend SafeGuard or something else? If so what's the dosage?

Those are maggots from flies so worming isn't necessary.
Vermx doesn't work at all, for future note

 

[coach723]

What kind of vinegar do you use?

I just use plain white vinegar, the cheap stuff. It's perfectly fine for cleaning and doesn't leave any harmful residues behind. I just get the biggest jug of the cheapest I can find, which right now is Walmart. And any hand held spray bottle that you can adjust the spray on. The vinegar eventually makes the sprayer stop working, so you will periodically need a new spray bottle.
Fly and gnat populations can vary year to year and season to season, depending on climate and environmental conditions. So PDZ might work during some times and not be effective during peak population times of year. If you have loads of flies or gnats, they are going to find fresh droppings, the more you have of droppings, the more maggots you will end up with. Since the birds only really roost at night, if you scrape your poop boards in the morning, then they won't have anything there to attract flies all day. Out in my run, the covered part is deep litter, flies have never had a problem, and my open fenced run the sun takes care of it, again, not a lot of flies there. Also, if you have too many birds in too small of a run area, you are going to have more droppings building up. Another reason that more space is a good idea, then the droppings are not all accumulating in a small spot.
For gnats, we have some here that just annoy the daylights out of my birds all summer. The two best things I've found work for me are 1. planting rosemary bushes in the run. The birds lay in the shade under them and the fragrant oils in the plants seem to repel the gnats. I do have to put down a layer of hardware cloth around the bases of the plants when I plant them to keep the birds from digging them up, other than that they don't bother them.
2. I have a box fan in one of my coop windows that keeps the air moving over the roosts. Makes it much harder for small flying insects, particularly gnats and mosquito's, to land on my roosting birds.

 

[Annalyse]

I just use plain white vinegar, the cheap stuff. It's perfectly fine for cleaning and doesn't leave any harmful residues behind. I just get the biggest jug of the cheapest I can find, which right now is Walmart. And any hand held spray bottle that you can adjust the spray on. The vinegar eventually makes the sprayer stop working, so you will periodically need a new spray bottle.
Fly and gnat populations can vary year to year and season to season, depending on climate and environmental conditions. So PDZ might work during some times and not be effective during peak population times of year. If you have loads of flies or gnats, they are going to find fresh droppings, the more you have of droppings, the more maggots you will end up with. Since the birds only really roost at night, if you scrape your poop boards in the morning, then they won't have anything there to attract flies all day. Out in my run, the covered part is deep litter, flies have never had a problem, and my open fenced run the sun takes care of it, again, not a lot of flies there. Also, if you have too many birds in too small of a run area, you are going to have more droppings building up. Another reason that more space is a good idea, then the droppings are not all accumulating in a small spot.
For gnats, we have some here that just annoy the daylights out of my birds all summer. The two best things I've found work for me are 1. planting rosemary bushes in the run. The birds lay in the shade under them and the fragrant oils in the plants seem to repel the gnats. I do have to put down a layer of hardware cloth around the bases of the plants when I plant them to keep the birds from digging them up, other than that they don't bother them.
2. I have a box fan in one of my coop windows that keeps the air moving over the roosts. Makes it much harder for small flying insects, particularly gnats and mosquito's, to land on my roosting birds.

Thank you. I CANT really plant any plants in the run as it will be totally destroyed and eaten by the end of the day. We have those tiny shed windows so finding a fan to fit into them sucks but I can lay it on the fencing part of the run. We just got some more bedding, our TSC didn’t have the horse bedding you suggested (our TSC doesn’t have much to begin with) I might try another livestock farm store nearby another day. Today we’re gonna be working on the ventilation above the roost and cleaning (it’s a hot humid day so this should be so much fun)

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Thank you. I CANT really plant any plants in the run as it will be totally destroyed and eaten by the end of the day. We have those tiny shed windows so finding a fan to fit into them sucks but I can lay it on the fencing part of the run. We just got some more bedding, our TSC didn’t have the horse bedding you suggested (our TSC doesn’t have much to begin with) I might try another livestock farm store nearby another day. Today we’re gonna be working on the ventilation above the roost and cleaning (it’s a hot humid day so this should be so much fun)

Let's see some pics of your coop...don't be to down on yourself, we all start out somewhere and learn as we go

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I CANT really plant any plants in the run as it will be totally destroyed and eaten by the end of the day

And you can plant plants, the key thing is to put something around the base so the chickens don't uproot them, @coach723 uses HWC, I use 6" landscape border. I have a couple Texas sage bushes in my run, and 1 crepe myrtle, and in my chicken yard I have 2 crepe myrtles, a fig tree, and an apricot tree (all planted as tiny plants)

 

[Annalyse]

And you can plant plants, the key thing is to put something around the base so the chickens don't uproot them, @coach723 uses HWC, I use 6" landscape border. I have a couple Texas sage bushes in my run, and 1 crepe myrtle, and in my chicken yard I have 2 crepe myrtles, a fig tree, and an apricot tree (all planted as tiny plants)

The digging isn’t my problem. They like to eat anything in sight and if they see any type of green or flower they race for it bc it’s “snacks” to them. They killed a whole flower plant just by plucking the flowers and not eating them just had fun plucking them.

 

[Annalyse]

Let's see some pics of your coop...don't be to down on yourself, we all start out somewhere and learn as we go

If I remember I will take pictures before I put them to bed. But coop is cleaned and maggot free hopefully. Tomrrow I’ll focus on the adding ventilation door above roost. We also might be adding a second coop/run for silkies. I have one tiny silkie (same age) in a standard flock and the bullying she gets is terrible. She’s hiding in the coop and we now keep food and water in their for her but she doesn’t eat much anyway. Im hoping to give her a small but good size coop and run and maybe 2-3 more silkies. I’ll be able to have make this coop good this time.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

The digging isn’t my problem. They like to eat anything in sight and if they see any type of green or flower they race for it bc it’s “snacks” to them. They killed a whole flower plant just by plucking the flowers and not eating them just had fun plucking them.

The plants suggested they will have very little interest in

 

[Annalyse]

Let's see some pics of your coop...don't be to down on yourself, we all start out somewhere and learn as we go

Didn’t forget but here’s a picture of the ventilation we put it and the difference it made. Before when I stuck my arm up by the roost you could just feel the heat and humidity that was up there. Now it’s so nice. Not humid or hot. The chickens loved it last night. It was raining so maybe that made a differnece but hopefully on a dry hot day it’ll still be nice.

 

[LaFleche]

The digging isn’t my problem. They like to eat anything in sight and if they see any type of green or flower they race for it bc it’s “snacks” to them. They killed a whole flower plant just by plucking the flowers and not eating them just had fun plucking them.

You could plant lots of oregano, thyme and lavender so they will treat themselves and at the same time their eggs will get a nice herbal flavour